The photograph of the candy was reportedly taken by a refugee; Skittles' parent company distanced itself from the tweet

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In this July 19, 2016, file photo, Donald Trump Jr., son of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. The younger Trump posted a message on Twitter likening Syrian refugees to a bowl of poisoned Skittles, causing a stir and negative tweets on the internet into Tuesday, Sept. 20.

Donald Trump Jr. has posted a message on Twitter likening Syrian refugees to a bowl of poisoned Skittles.

Seeking to promote his father's presidential campaign, the younger Trump posted a tweet featuring a bowl of the candy Skittles with a warning.

The BBC reported on Tuesday that the photographer who shot the original image of Skittles Trump Jr. used is himself a refugee, and did not grant the New Yorker permission to use the image.

David Kittos reportedly lives in Guildford, in the United Kingdom, but came to the country in 1974 as a child to escape Turkish rule in Cyprus. He told the BBC, "This was not done with my permission, I don't support his politics and I would never take his money to use it."

Trump Booed Leaving New York Times

President Elect Donald Trump is booed as he walks through the lobby of The New York Times Building after a 75-minute meeting with Times journalists. The lobby of the Times building is open to the public, and a large crowd had gathered by the time he departed. (Published Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016)

"Skittles are candy. Refugees are people. We don't feel it's an appropriate analogy," Vice President of Corporate Affairs Denise Young said in the statement. "We will respectfully refrain from further commentary as anything we say could be misinterpreted as marketing."

The tweet came as world leaders meeting at the United Nations on Monday approved a declaration aimed at providing a more coordinated and humane response to the global refugee crisis, among which Syrians are a major grouping.

During the campaign Trump has repeatedly called for a moratorium on accepting Syrian refugees. This is part of a more wide-ranging policy on immigrants that has ranged from an outright ban on foreign Muslim immigrants entering the United States "until we know what the hell is going on" to "extreme" vetting and an ideological test for would-be immigrants from countries and regions plagued by extremism.

Trump Takes Meetings at His New Jersey Golf Club

President-elect Trump interviewed more than a dozen candidates for his administration at his New Jersey golf club over the weekend, including Mitt Romney, Rudy Guliani, Chris Christie and Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach, who has been tough on immigration, and others. (Published Monday, Nov. 21, 2016)

Clinton has said she would expand President Barack Obama's refugee program to accept about 65,000 Syrian refugees. This would be in addition to the tens of thousands of refugees accepted from around the world every year. Clinton said she would continue with the vetting currently in place, an effort that can take multiple years to complete.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have sought refuge in Europe while many others wait in neighboring countries and refugee camps for the war to end or a chance to move away from the carnage. Obama pledged the U.S. would accept 10,000 Syrians this budget year, which ends Sept. 30, and achieved that number a month early. This is in addition to about 75,000 refugees from other parts of the world.